Polymarket CEO Rebuffs Partisan Claims From New York Times

Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan shot down New York Times allegations claiming the prediction platform is politically biased.

Coplan described the Polygon-based betting service as a neutral alternative data source currently benefiting from election-related hype. His comments were in response to a recent article from The New York Times that accused Polymarket of partisan manipulation and labeled it as nothing more than a “crypto-powered gambling” site.

Polymarket’s boss also debunked rumors that entrepreneur Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund hold sway over the company’s operations. Founders Fund invested $45 million in the firm, but Coplan clarified that neither Thiel nor his fund are major stakeholders.

According to Coplan, Polymarket operates like a free market where users set the price and determine the odds. Third parties can only observe trading data since the platform is built on decentralized technology.

The beauty of Polymarket is it’s all peer-to-peer and transparent. Even more transparent than traditional finance, where all the data is obfuscated and only visible to the operator. That’s why everyone is able to audit all the usage – which is a good thing for free markets. A feature, not a bug.

Shayne Coplan, Polymarket CEO

Coplan’s company has been one of crypto’s breakout stories this year, recording over $1 billion in volume in September bets alone. Its largest market, focused on the U.S. presidential elections, had over $2.3 billion in volume 11 days before U.S. citizens voted for the next president.

As of this writing, Donald Trump’s lead over Kamala Harris on the platform remained intact. The Republican had a 64.1% probability of winning, while Harris’ odds of victory had dropped to 35.9%.

Amid Bloomberg integrations and the NYT claims, data revealed another talking point related to Polymarket. While the company has attracted billions in bets, its protocol has remitted less than $30,000 in transaction fees to Polygon’s blockchain this year.